With direct mail you can target the exact prospect you want, at their exact address with the ONLY MEDIA THAT GUARANTEES a 100% OPEN RATE and the highest attention rate of any media. Isn’t that the holy grail of marketing, being able to target the exact prospect  you want, at the exact time, with the exact message, and guarantee that they SEE IT.

This is exactly what direct mail delivers and just two of the many reasons that make direct mail so powerful when done right. Let me repeat that, when done right as there are so many things that will kill a direct mail campaign before it even begins. Furthermore, for most industries, direct mail is one of the easiest media to track response rate and ROI. Therefore, you can take if from does direct mail work to this is exactly how well it worked for my business.

With all that said, the reason behind asking the question “Does Direct Mail Work.” Boils down to either one or a combination of the following 6 reasons.

1. I have tried direct mail in the past and it just didn’t work.
2. XXXX told me direct mail doesn’t work. Often this comes from a digital marketing company trying to sell the direct mail or could be a friend or colleague has told them that direct mail doesn’t work.
3. I just don’t really understand marketing in general and/or do not understand the capabilities of direct mail and how it really works.
4. I just don’t think it will work for my business.
5. Let’s really break down each of these reasons and bring some transparency to the heart of the questions.
6. I’ve tried direct mail in the past and it just didn’t work.

If this is you, here are the important questions that need to be asked.

Do you know who and where your mailers were sent to?

There needs to be a sound strategy behind selecting the right areas and prospects to target. Nothing will kill a direct mail campaign more than a bad list and sending your mailers to the wrong prospects in the wrong areas.

Do you have a copy of your last mailer?

This is an easy checkpoint to identify If your direct mail marketing was designed properly both from an aesthetic perspective and content perspective.

If your direct mail marketing wasn’t easy to read, easy to scan, did not have a strong call to action, a compelling offer, contained technical jargon and did not include strategic ad copy that would resonate with your prospective customers, you might as well toss your money down the toilet.

How did you track and/or gauge the effectiveness of your direct mail response and ROI?

Tracking your marketing efforts and determining how customers are finding your business is arguably one of the hardest parts. This becomes even more difficult when deploying a multi-channel marketing approach.

I often hear that call tracking was used to a client’s direct mail response rate. Unfortunately, in 99.9999% of all cases call tracking is NOT an accurate method to track direct mail response.

The reason being is that many prospects who receive your mailer will go online, read reviews and call from the number on Google or your website. The minute a call is made from any number other than the call tracking number on your mailer, you have lost all accuracy.

Although call tracking will show some results and does have some merit, It will only show you those that called from the number on the mailer and is not inclusive or indicative of all calls made from the number on google or your website, thus making it grossly inaccurate.

However, for businesses such as Home Services, HVAC, Plumbing, landscaping, Power Washing, Construction, etc. Auto Repair, Dental Practices, Fitness Centers, Insurance, Financial, Education, etc. etc. etc. that acquire their customers address when they become a customer, it is very easy to attribute ROI.

This is done with a very simple report called a match back report. The match back report takes the new customers your business acquires after your direct mail marketing has been sent out and compares It to the list of prospects who have received your direct mail marketing matching back a detailed list of every new customer acquired that was targeted with direct mail.

Of course, it cannot tell you if your direct mail was the only reason,  they became a customer. For example, the direct mail got their attention but your website and google reviews is what pushed them over the edge. The latter you will likely never be able to solve for at scale and you could spend a decade determining if you want to consider it first, touch last touch, etc., but it surely does give you the ability to  attribute direct mail as one of the touches, if not the primary touch that got them to become a customer at your business.

For other types of business such as restaurants, retail, etc. that are not able to acquire a customer’s address at time of purchase, it is likely you will never know your exact response rate. In these cases, the best you can do is count coupons or try and track special offers with unique codes to tie them back to an offer directly from one of your mailers. Many suggest look at sales as a determining factor. As intuitive as those sounds, I have seen a customer who are getting a response and have declining sales due to operational issues.

XXXX told me direct mail doesn’t work.

First, we must ask, who is providing you with this information. If it is a company trying to sell you another form of marketing and they are bashing another marketing channel, then you should probably just disregard it and/or ask them to provide you with fact-based evidence to substantiate their claim as opposed to what they think or what they say they are seeing. I’d be willing to be they can’t provide you with anything accurate.

If it is a friend, family member or colleague, it can only have come their opinion or from an experience they have had in the past with direct mail. If it is opinion based and not fact based than it can be disregarded. If it is based on previous experience, ask them the questions above addressed above to uncover if they executed their direct mail campaign properly and/or accurately tracked their direct mail campaign results to substantiate their feedback.

I just don’t really understand marketing in general and/or do not understand the capabilities of direct mail and how it really works.

This is a fair concern. Most business owners and managers aren’t marketing experts. Even those business owner managers that do understand marketing or have some expertise may not be the authority on a specific channel of marketing like SEO, Direct Mail, etc. Therefore, it’s always a best practice to find an expert in that field and rely on them to help you.

The key is finding the right expert which is the biggest challenge. Fortunately using google can help make this process much more efficient. I recommend by starting by looking for companies that have expertise with your specific industry and have the google reviews to match.

I just don’t think it will work for my business.

You may be right about this concern. Direct mail may not work well for your businesses, or it may work, but you may be able to

get a much better ROI using another form of marketing. This can only be determined by consulting with a real direct mail expert.

For example, let’s assume you owned an auto body repair shop. I would not recommend direct mail as the best use of your marketing dollars and the most viable way for your business to acquire new customers.

The reason being is that the need for auto body repair cannot be determined by someone’s demographic or where they live and there is no direct mail list you can buy that breaks down vehicle owners that may need auto body repairs. A vehicles owners need for an auto body repair will typically be determined by a recent event or immediate need they have to repair  their vehicle.
A better use of an auto body repair shops marketing dollars would be better deployed to channels like local SEO, optimizing your google business profile, executing PPC. These channels will ensure you are optimized so that when a prospect has a need arise and they head to google to find a local body shop that yours is at the top of the list.

In summation, direct mail is extremely effective when executed strategically for the right type of business.

To learn more about how Best4mailing can help your business strategically acquire and retain more customers the right way. Contact us today.

The post Does Direct Mail Work? appeared first on Best4mailing.

As a direct mail marketing professional, I know having a strong offer on our client’s direct mail marketing in the form of a coupon or special is a major catalyst to entice new customers to try their establishment for the first time as well as getting current customers to come back and become loyal repeat customers. 

However, when speaking to many of our clients, it can be difficult for them to understand that offering a small discount is well worth it when comparing the discount amount to their customers lifetime value. Your customers lifetime value is the amount of money a customer is expected to spend at your business during the entire time they remain a customer. You can easily google “customer lifetime value” and read endless articles on the topic. 

Furthermore, there is still a misconception as to who uses coupons. For example, we often here from our clients in areas with higher incomes, that wealthier people aren’t looking for coupons or that their clients wouldn’t be interested in a coupon. 

 Of course, we know this is not the case based on previous data and many studies that have been done in the past. However, we wanted to refresh the topic with current relevant data and find out how many wealthy consumers use coupons compared to those with lower incomes. Furthermore, we wanted to see if and how these numbers changed based on the product/service being offered. E.g., Are more consumers using coupons for pizza than for auto repair service, HVAC services, etc. etc.  

Therefore, we decided to take four industries (in no specific order) Auto Repair, Pizza/Restaurants, General Dentistry & Home Services (HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical) and conduct our own research to get the answers and provide updated current data to the old question. 

Below we will cover our key findings by industry. If you would like to dive deeper into our survey methodology, how we conducted our survey, parameters to be included in our survey as well as more details regarding these and many other key findings, we have provided a link at the bottom of this article to each specific consumer research and insights report entitled “Cracking The Code.” Cracking The Code is our full industry specific consumer research and insight report that answered these questions to consumers in addition to many others.  

Home Services (HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical) 

We asked 5,818 homeowners: 

 If you received a coupon/special in the mail from a reputable home services provider offering a discount on services and/or product you need, would you use it? 

Results based on income:

Dental: 

We asked 5,842 consumers: 

If you received a coupon/special offer in the mail for dental services that you need, how likely are you to redeem that offer?

Results based on income:

As you can see based on each industry we analyzed, the consumer interest in coupons is high regardless of income and in many cases, those with higher incomes have reported they would use coupons more than those with lower incomes.  

The only outlier to this happens to be in the restaurant/pizzeria industry. Although over 50% reported using coupons for their favorite restaurants, this is the only industry analyzed where respondents with higher incomes reported less usage of coupons/specials than those with lower incomes. 

So quite simply it appears that some of the wealthier demographics are more interested in using coupons where the savings are greater. All in all, the answer to our original question is a resounding YES consumers use coupons and YES consumers with higher incomes use coupons. The challenge for you now is to develop a strategic coupon campaign that will appeal to the market you are targeting.  

Below you will find links to each industry specific consumer insight report that not only contains the details of our coupons research above but is chalk full of other key insights that will help you better understand the consumers you are targeting as prospective new customers.  

 Josh Davis, CRO 

The post Who Uses Coupons? appeared first on Best4mailing.

The top three reported reasons are: “No Dental Insurance” (31%), “Covid Concerns” (23%), and “Too Busy” (21%)

With such a high number, almost 1 in 3 (31%) reporting not having insurance as a reason to not see the dentist, there continues to be a compelling reason to consider offering an in-house membership program. Having an in-house dental membership program can help many uninsured consumers get the dental care they need while attracting new patients, increasing business, and generating recurring revenue.

Download Cracking the Code Dental To Learn More About Your Practice’s Customers

& Access Best4mailing’s Latest Consumer Research And Insights Report.

The post The Top 3 Reasons More Patients Are Not Visiting The Dentist appeared first on Best4mailing.

To Find Out Just How Much Most Patients Could Afford For An Unexpected Dental Procedure We Asked 5,840 Patients The Following:

What is the highest amount you would be
able to afford paying out-of-pocket for an unexpected dental procedure?

With over 1 out of every three (35%) of respondents reporting they could not afford an unexpected out-of-pocket dental expense of $499 or more, and another 29% reporting that $999 is the max out-of-pocket dental expense they could afford, providing financing solutions for these patients is a great way to create a win-win. Your case acceptance rate increases, you retain a satisfied patient, and your patient receives the dental care they need.

Download Cracking the Code Dental To Learn More About Your Practice’s Customers

& Access Best4mailing’s Latest Consumer Research And Insights Report.

The post How Much Can Patients Afford for Out-of-Pocket Dental Expenses? appeared first on Best4mailing.

To find out, we asked 5,841 consumers the following question:

Based On A Google Rating System Of 1-5 Stars (1 being lowest, 5 being highest),
which of the following applies to you?

I Would Only Use A Dental Practice With A Google Rating Of _ Or Higher.

With 47% of prospective patients from our survey reporting they would not consider a practice with less than a 4.5-star rating and 74% reporting that they would not consider your practice with less than a 4.0-star rating, it’s critical to be aware that as your online review rating decreases, so too does the number of potential prospective patients who will consider your practice.

Download Cracking the Code Dental To Learn More About Your Practice’s Customers

& Access Best4mailing’s Latest Consumer Research And Insights Report.

The post When Can Your Google Rating Hurt Your Practice? appeared first on Best4mailing.

The Results Of Our National Consumer Research Survey Of 10,822 Consumers, Indicate That 36% Of Respondents Have Not Been To
The Dentist In The Past 12 Months.

Taking a closer look at the demographics of respondents who reported not visiting a dentist over the past 12 months, sheds some interesting light on the data.

We found that most respondents who reported not visiting the dentist in the past 12 months, have lower incomes, less education and are not employed full/part time.

This is certainly not to say lower income, unemployed and less educated consumers are not visiting the dentists. It is merely to say that based on our data, most respondents that reported they have not visited the dentist over the past 12 months are weighted heavier to the above-mentioned demographic profile (lower income, less education, not employed full/part time) as you can see from the results below.

Download Cracking the Code Dental To Learn More About Your Practice’s Customers

& Access Best4mailing’s Latest Consumer Research And Insights Report.

The post How many consumers are regularly visiting the dentist? appeared first on Best4mailing.

Not only did we get the answer, we uncovered some interesting demographic data that provides a compelling reason to ensure your website is done right.

Based on our survey results of 2,000 consumers, 61% of respondents reported that they are influenced by a professional-looking website, with almost 1 in every 4 (24%) of consumers reporting that they are influenced “A Lot,” and 37% reporting that they are influenced “Somewhat” by a professional website.

How much does a professional looking dental website design and quality website content influence you to use a dental practice?

Additionally, when analyzing the demographics of respondents who reported that they are influenced “A Lot” by a professional-looking site, we uncovered that they are more heavily weighted to being:

The significance of this? Those who are employed, with higher education and higher incomes are also the prospective patients who reported that they visit the dentist most frequently. Of course, this is not to say that other demographics do not visit the dentist. However, based on the results of our survey below, consumers with this specific demographic profile reported visiting the dentist the most.

How much does a professional-looking dental website design and quality website content influence you to use a dental practice?

How much does a professional-looking dental website design and quality website content influence you to use a dental practice?

How much does a professional-looking dental website design and quality website content influence you to use a dental practice?

Download Cracking the Code Dental To Learn More About Your Practice’s Customers

& Access Best4mailing’s Latest Consumer Research And Insights Report.

The post How Important Is Your Website To Attracting New Patients? appeared first on Best4mailing.

Just how frequently your patients want to hear from you is the question. You want to ensure you’re staying in front of your patients at an interval that’s effective, but not so frequent that you bombard your happy patients with too much communication.

To provide insight as to how frequently patients want to hear from their dental practice, we asked 5,841 consumers:

How often would you want to hear from your dental practice throughout the year with news, updates, and/or special offers?

Based on our findings, 50% of patients want to hear from you at least every three months, with 33% reporting they want to hear from you every 6 months. With that in mind, a frequency that may be a good place to start, is a quarterly strategy of communication, every 3 months. That said, there is no right or wrong answer here. The key is getting a plan in place and executing it. From here you can easily adjust the frequency of communication up or down.

Download Cracking the Code Dental To Learn More About Your Practice’s Customers

& Access Best4mailing’s Latest Consumer Research And Insights Report.

The post How Frequently Do Your Patients Want to Hear From You? appeared first on Best4mailing.

When we asked 5,842 consumers what influences them the most when selecting a dentist,

“Easy To Schedule Appointments” was in the top three of the most influencing factors.

Download Cracking the Code Dental To Learn More About Your Practice’s Customers

& Access Best4mailing’s Latest Consumer Research And Insights Report.

The post How Do Most Patients Prefer Scheduling Their Appointments? appeared first on Best4mailing.

To gain some additional insight as to how receptive consumers are toward special offers regarding dental services, we asked 5,842 consumers

If you received a special offer in the mail for dental services that you need, how likely are you to redeem that offer?

Based on our results, we found that 82% reported they are likely (41% Very Likely and 41% Somewhat Likely) to redeem an offer in the mail. Only 18% reported they are “Not at All Likely” to redeem an offer.

It’s clear that consumers are receptive to offers they receive in the mail for dental services. However, what isn’t as transparent, but quite insightful, is analyzing the income demographic of those who responded that they are likely to redeem an offer. What the data shows, is that consumers with higher incomes are equally, if not more likely, to redeem a special offer than those with lower incomes. This further dispels the old notion that wealthy consumers don’t use coupons or special offers.

Two Types of Special Offers We Recommend Considering For Your Practice

There are many different types of offers you can use to attract new patients. However, as a best practice, we suggest using a minimum of two: one new patient offer for teeth cleaning and one new patient offer for teeth whitening.

Why? Teeth cleaning and teeth whitening are the top two reasons why patients from our survey reported visiting the dentist.

By using these two types of strategic offers you can cast a wide net that will appeal to a broad audience.

From here, you can add on any additional offers you think would appeal to your practice’s specific prospective patients such as a complimentary second opinion or consultation, a special offer for Invisalign or similar services, savings off other specific procedures, etc.

Download Cracking the Code Dental To Learn More About Your Practice’s Customers

& Access Best4mailing’s Latest Consumer Research And Insights Report.

The post Can Your Practice Attract New Patients With Special Offers? appeared first on Best4mailing.